Paddling News

Kayakers Justin Jones and James Castrission have fallen short of becoming the first Australians to paddle across the Tasman Sea. Kayakers Justin Jones and James Castrission have fallen short of becoming the first Australians to paddle across the Tasman Sea. A team of four other kayakers touched the shore at Neutral Bay's Hayes Street Beach at 8.15am Sunday.

They came through the Heads about 3.30am, were cleared by customs while still on the water, met their families on the harbour and stopped in at Watsons Bay.

Jones and Castrission, who launched their sea kayak Lot 41 from Forster on November 13 2007, are still over 500km from Auckland after battling strong currents.

The team of Steven Gates, Andrew Johnson, Kerry Tozer and surf boat specialist Sally Macready left New Zealand's Hokianga Harbour on November 29.

The team powered through 2,200km. The Tasman, they discovered, is frothing with dangers. On Christmas night the foursome narrowly avoided colliding with a giant freighter that hadn't seen them. Another had missed them as they anchored in a storm.

Rowing in shifts of two hours on and two hours off, the team paddled their 11 metre kayak 24 hours a day.

The crew reported favourable currents for most of the journey. On Boxing Day they had a visit from a pod of around 30 dolphins.

Castrission and Jones, who paddled an extra 1000 kilometres to avoid treacherous ocean currents, now expect to arrive in New Zealand on January 12. Their progress has been hampered by huge seas and mechanical failures, including a stray rope that had to be untangled from their kayak's rudder.

The first person to paddle the Tasman was the New Zealand solo kayaker Colin Quincy in 1976. An Australian adventurer, Andrew McAuley, died on a similar attempt in February, within 65 kilometres of Milford Sound in New Zealand.

Article Source: tuncurry.yourguide.com.au